YouTube Obsession

If you’re at all in the weightlifting corners of YouTube you have no doubt been force fed Mike Israetel.

Now, I have nothing against Mike, his content is very obviously focused on bodybuilding and he presents a science based look at the sport. He also takes steroids. He is very open about this and he was the first creator I remember seeing who would openly talk about how steroids feel. This fascinates me and is definitely why he shows up in my feed.

However, once I know someone takes steroids, I loose all interest in anything they have to say about fitness or gym workouts. Not that I have anything against people who use gear but at that point we are lifting for different reasons⁴ .

Like here; I don’t care what Mike has to say about Sam’s form at all because Mike is critiquing from a position ultimately based in body-dysmorphia. Hate me if you want, but if you’re on steroids to look a certain way, you have body dysmorphia. And that’s ok! Get on your ‘mones king! But I no longer have any interest in your opinions on lifting.

So is Sam’s form terrible? Maybe? Who cares? I don’t go to the gym so I can min-max number of movements to muscle created. I go so I don’t have to diet to stay healthy, I go so I can be tired but I mostly to clear my head. When I am lifting something heavy my brain is empty, no thoughts just lift. Having a “in-shape-for-a-father-of-three” bod is just a happy byproduct.

He also has a tendency to do “no homo” jokes that really aren’t funny or useful, they just separate him from the average ultra-masc health-tuber.

Watching

My Letterboxd review of One Battle After Another is very simple:

This is going places, so please, keep your hands inside the car at all times and save any questions until after the presentation, oh and SPOILERS.

This movie reminded me of Alcoholics Anonymous.

AA is a lot of things. But ultimately it is a community people who share a common purpose: To stay sober and help others recover from alcoholism. This community does not collect dues, does not have a hierarchy, is non-evangelical and is so loosely affiliated that every meeting has an entirely different approach to it’s format. It is even a key tradition of AA that “AA ought never be organized.” It is, quite literally, anarchy in action.

It is also prevalently shown in pop-culture as a short-form for checkered pasts like in House of Cards, 21 Bridges and most recently Weapons. AA’s most popular claims to fame is either the ”Hello, I’m __________ and I’m an Alcoholic.” introductory mantra made famous in copious pop-culture media¹ or the infamous 12 steps.

The 12 steps, regardless of what you hear from pop-culture -or even some its own members- is a guideline to form a relationship with a power greater than yourself. That’s all it is. No one can tell you what your HP is and honestly no one cares what it is so long as it’s not you. I know a guy who’s higher power is literally Godzilla. He’s been sober 30+ years.

So why is a Higher Power needed at all? Is it not enough to just abstain from alcohol? In the book Alcoholics Anonymous it says that when you have completed the 12 steps you will be “rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence”. It’s easy to read that as some acid trip, crystal mommy woo-woo bs when in the context of the rest of the book it becomes clear that the “Fourth Dimension” is just reality.

An active addict and alcoholic is using to not be here. We will go to great lengths not to be present. Even if we are sober, without a HP we will be in shame about the past we cannot change or in fear of a future that may not even exist. We refuse to be present. We will use anything not to be grounded, not to see the big picture.

One Battle After Another is about what removes us from being present. The book Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, on which the film is inspired, is way more explicit on this topic:

“The beautiful certainty” is about as haughty as “The Fourth Dimension” but they are talking about the same thing: A Higher Power, a reality. The reality for the French 75 is the revolution.

This is what the film is saying as well; So much is put into our faces every moment, internet, tiktok, drugs, alcohol that it is hard to be present and see the big picture. The film also makes clear that there are driven, evil people (The Christmas Adventurers) who are always thinking about the big picture. Their reality.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, member Bill W. shares that he had no doubt that “A mighty purpose and rhythm underlay all.” This is the reality of life but are we present enough to hear the music of the spheres?

**

I could also talk about the great dissection of the Generations of American culture happening in the film, from the power-strangulating boomers and disaffected Gen X to the hopeful future with Gen Alpha. Or it’s paralleling of impenetrable institutional jargon among the revolution and military. Or even it’s take on there being shitty people in every movement; We don’t have to like each other to be a community² . But I’m sure there are more educated people to have those discussions.

I recommend One Battle After Another.

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One note that I have about the movie that doesn’t really affect the quality; but every time I see that a HAIM girl in a movie it takes me right out of it. I’m sure there’s a good argument as to why she’s in this but I’m gonna stay a hater on this one. No more movies for HAIM girl. Any of them. They are suspended.

Reading/Playing

Would it surprise anyone that I found more Battletech stuff to read? Well if the community would stop being rad I could take a minute to get obsessed with something else!

I’ve read the official Campaign Operations book for Battletech and yeah, if a fan wants to simplify that system to make it easier and more narrative focused I say let’s go! Not only has Dustin simplified the rules in his entirely fan made campaign system, he also created an entire core rulebook. Yall know I love a core rulebook.

To make the game easier to run he also made a great Google Sheets form that will track your stats for you.

I love creating things in a world. One of the most fun things I ever did was create a campaign for some friends to play Dungeon Worlds. I love creating cool things and then seeing were a story goes. This entire sheet is filled with cool things to name and give a character to I love it I love it I love it.

Will I ever play it? Maybe? But I will be creating forces and giving them cool names for a while.

Other Notables

** Great breakdown of some of the Epstein emails

** Lawyers explain why they used fake facts provided by AI in court. Love the guy who said he had a headache lolololllol

** I want an option to turn shorts off not have them picture in picture while I facetime my parents

** A good campaign. A damn good campaign.

1  This and the original text’s constant referral to “God” is why AA is sometimes misrepresented as a cult.

2  This is a core characteristic of AA as well: “We are a group of people who would not normally mix.”

3  Though, there a few YT essays discussing his supposedly horrible PHD dissertation. I really don’t care, I don’t like his content anyway.

4  There are a couple dudes at my gym who lift very strangely and I have to remind myself that they are lifting for different reasons than myself.